Rohit Sharma non-committal on Pant’s risky batting as he talks about the latter trying to find the right risk-reward balance himself.
Rohit Sharma non-committal on Pant’s dismissal by playing high-risk shots at crucial moments.
While admitting that his high-risk strategies had previously produced stunning success, India captain Rohit Sharma has stated that Rishabh Pant needs to determine “the right way to do things” for both himself and the squad.
Rohit was responding to a query regarding Pant’s dismissals during India’s loss at the MCG. In the first innings, when the team was battling for a draw, he was caught scooping to deep third, and in the second, he dragged a long hop to wide long-on.
“It’s [Pant’s dismissal] just happened, there hasn’t been any discussion about today,” Rohit said. “Obviously we’ve lost the game, everybody is disappointed about how things panned out … But again, look, Rishabh Pant obviously he needs to understand what is required from himself.
“More than any one of us telling him, it’s about him understanding and figuring out what’s the right way to go about it. In the past, he has given us lot of success doing what he does. As a captain, there’s a kind of mixed reaction to that.
“Sometimes you want to back that thought of him playing the way he plays, sometimes when things don’t look good, it frustrates everyone. That is what it is, that’s the reality. It’s the success and failure – need to be balanced about it. As captain, it’s hard to have a conversation when it has given him a lot of success as well. But it’s about him figuring out what is the right way to do things, it’s about situations as well. Certain situations of the game, if there’s a risk percentage, do you want to take that risk? Do you want to let the opposition come back into the game? Those are the things he needs to figure out himself.
“I’ve known Rishabh for a long time, [I] understand his cricket as well … In terms of conversations, no way I can say I’ve not had a chat with him. Or he doesn’t understand what the team expects. He understands that. But things that he does give him results as well, just the fine line between telling him not to do those things or telling him to do those things.”